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Barbara Walters to Piers Morgan: ‘We thought that [Obama] was going to be the Next Messiah’

“I shouldn’t say this at Christmastime,” Barbara Walters told Piers Morgan on his show Tuesday night. But despite her best judgment, she went on to say it – and it was quite a controversial statement.

What exactly was it?

“We thought that he was going to be – I shouldn’t say this at Christmastime, but – the next messiah,” she told Morgan.

The response came after Morgan asked why Obama has faced so much opposition, and “Why is he struggling so much to really fulfill the great flame of ambition and excitement that he was elected on originally in 2009?”

“He made so many promises,” she began. “We thought that he was going to be – I shouldn’t say this at Christmastime, but – the next messiah. And the whole Obamacare, or whatever you want to call it, that Affordable Health Act, it just hasn’t worked for him, and he’s stumbled around on it, and people feel very disappointed because they expected more.”

She added: “It’s very difficult when the expectations for you are very high. You’re almost better off when they are low and then they rise and rise.”